Hunterdon Central (32) at Voorhees (31) - Wrestling

The mission for David Fenton, Hunterdon Central's 182-pounder, was to stay off his back against two-time state place-winner Jadaen Bernstein of Voorhees, and not allow bonus points.

Fenton, of course, wanted to win.

While he fell short of the victory, Fenton accomplished his mission and held Bernstein to just a decision, allowing Hunterdon Central (3-0) to break a tie with the eighth criteria – most first-points scored – and win, 32-31, yesterday in Glen Gardner.

“Sometimes you can be the hero without always winning,” Hunterdon Central coach Steve Gibble said of Fenton’s 6-3 loss. “In this case he was. We bumped him up because we didn’t think anyone else could stay off his back against Bernstein, and Fenton did.”

Trailing 31-24, Voorhees (3-2) needed bonus points from its best wrestler in the second-to-last bout of the day at 182 pounds, but Fenton was unrelenting.

Bernstein worked two beautiful takedowns off of a drag to a single-leg, giving him a 4-1 advantage heading into the third period. But the senior started to tire after being unable to turn his opponent from the top.

Then, after Bernstein escaped in the third, Fenton caught him off guard with a takedown of his own to make it 5-3 and clinch the regular decision.

“I wanted to beat him,” Fenton said of Bernstein. “He’s one of the top wrestlers in the state and I wanted to knock him off. I lost but I’ll see him again in tri-counties, and we got a fantastic win.”

With his team trailing, 31-27, Voorhees‘ Nick Ruggiero still had a chance to clinch a team victory by notching either a victory by fall or technical fall in the last bout at 195, but a last-second takedown was only good enough for a 12-4 major decision, tying the score at 31.

The fate of the contest was then at the mercy of the rulebook.

Both teams had the same amount of wins and falls, and it went on down the line until Criteria H – most first-points scored – which favored Hunterdon Central.

“I actually thought we lost on criteria,” Fenton said. “But then I heard we won, and I ran into the locker room screaming.”

Voorhees started strong when Kyle Levy used an armbar to win the 220-pound bout by fall in 3:23, and Emilio Guevara worked a 3-2 decision at 285 to put his team up, 9-0.

Hunterdon Central won the 106-pound match, but forfeited 113, and got pinned at 120 by Voorhees’ Cody Ihling to fall into a 21-3 hole.

The Flemington squad climbed out by winning six of the next seven bouts, highlighted by a pin from Dylan Nace in 16 seconds at 126 pounds, a major decision by state runner-up Gary Dinmore at 145, and pins by Tyler Cote and Joe Scerbo at 160 and 170, respectively.

Nace almost gave up a takedown in his bout but reached back and threw his opponent with a reverse headlock to earn the pin. Dinmore needed a takedown with eight seconds remaining to earn his bonus point, and Cote used a lateral drop to pin at 160 and give his team a 25-24 lead.

Scerbo followed with a 40-second pin to give Hunterdon Central 31 points – just enough to win on a tiebreaker.

“We expected this one, we wanted it, so it was nice to get it,” Gibble said. “Now we go into our tournament and then back to the dual meet schedule so this was very positive, and sets everything up.”